Infectious Disease

COVID-19 is still a global health issue but we can responsibly live with it

Conditions
March 11, 2023

The World Health Organization (WHO) first declared the COVID-19 outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on January 30, 2020, when, outside of China, there were fewer than 100 cases, and there were no deaths. This formal declaration by the WHO has been renewed 12 times, most recently last month the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee advised the WHO that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to be …

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The vaccination dilemma: Protecting patient rights or caregiver freedom?

Conditions
March 10, 2023

Recently, I heard a news report regarding several state attorneys general suing the federal government to eliminate the requirement that health care providers be immunized against COVID. They argued that as fully immunized individuals still contract COVID, and that allowing unimmunized people to be rehired would relieve provider shortage, the regulation was unhelpful.

Initially, I agreed, as rehiring these individuals would generate some relief for those staff members who have worked …

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Breaking the stigma: Making HIV and COVID screening routine in primary care [PODCAST]

Podcast
February 20, 2023
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes!

In this episode, we welcome clinical research assistant professor, Maranda C. Ward, to discuss the importance of routine screening for both HIV and COVID-19 in primary care. During the COVID pandemic, we became familiar with answering questions …

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Mostly miserables: a physician-mother’s struggle during COVID-19

Physician
February 18, 2023

It was the year 2020 — the month of March. The world shifted on its axis in ways we could not imagine. The job of a physician-mother is one of never-ending tightrope walking while juggling batons on fire and crystal figurines, all while herding cats.

You see, the physician and mother are so intertwined in our being, one cannot leave either role for the other at their respective doorway. There is …

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Navigating the new norm: a physician’s perspective on caring for sick patients in the age of COVID

Physician
February 15, 2023

I have three adult daughters, all college graduates. All are in long-term relationships with men, children, dogs, and careers. I am “Dad” and will always be Dad. I additionally happen to be a physician who cares for adult patients. If they are ill or have a medical problem, their first phone call is to my cell phone. If it’s not a phone call, it’s a text message. I do not …

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The rise of at-home STI testing: a solution to America’s growing problem or a risky gamble?

Conditions
February 4, 2023

In 2021, I spent the year before starting medical school calling and counseling the patients of a busy urban emergency department on the results of their sexually transmitted infection (STI) tests.

“What exactly is gonorrhea?” some would ask. “Is there a cure?”

“No one ever taught me about this,” one older gentleman lamented when we discussed using condoms to prevent the transmission of infection.

Stories like his reflect our society’s hesitancy to discuss …

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A physician’s journey with COVID-19: reflections on mental coping mechanisms and seeking care [PODCAST]

Podcast
January 30, 2023
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes!

In this episode, we hear from Alen Voskanian, a palliative care physician, who shares his personal experience with COVID-19. Dr. Voskanian reflects on the mental coping mechanisms he used to try and understand how he contracted the …

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The isolation of the COVID ICU: the need for patient advocates

Conditions
January 30, 2023

The COVID ICU is abuzz with monitors beeping and doctors and nurses rushing from bed to bed to care for critically ill patients, most on ventilators. The machines – dialysis, vents, pumps – sound off their rhythmic repetitions; breaths are pushed in and pulled out, and meds are dripped. Only the patients themselves are silent. We know this, and we hear this, but we are not there. It’s thhe height …

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Saying goodbye: the tragic impact of COVID-19 on families

Physician
January 17, 2023

“No, no, no! I’m having a nightmare!” She shrieked through the phone. I couldn’t bear to hear it as words fell clumsily out of my mouth. “Your husband couldn’t breathe on his own. We had to put him on a ventilator. I’m so sorry.”

I was apologizing already. I’m sure she knew that it wasn’t a good sign when a physician opened with an apology. “What does that mean?” she stuttered. …

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Let teens self-consent to vaccines

Policy
January 1, 2023

I still remember the exhilaration I felt upon learning that my peers and I could finally return to our in-person classrooms. After a year of Zoom lectures, asynchronous exams, and more, the prospect of seeing each other again thrilled us.

However, we had not anticipated the constant fear and uncertainty that would accompany this transition. Despite implementing safety measures like masking and one-way hallways, the number of COVID-19 cases continued to …

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Measles: a preventable disease that is making a comeback

Conditions
December 30, 2022

I see there has been yet another measles outbreak; at the time of writing, the count is 59 in central Ohio. All are either unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated. No doubt local pediatricians are being flooded with worried parents proffering their offspring for viewing with the statement, “Could this rash be measles, doctor?”

This certainly happened to me in 2019 when doing some primary care practice. That year experienced a massive …

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When contentment falls short

Physician
December 24, 2022

Sliding toward another solstice, I feel myself yearning. I want the daylight to stay a little longer, soft like this, gentle warmth and lovely shadows, lazy breezes, the illusion of contentment.

But I am not content. Or perhaps I am, but whereas I once thought contentment was the goal, the sentiment makes me uneasy now.

“Nothing gold can stay,” Robert Frost wrote. To stay content would be to embrace the shift in …

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A physician in denial after being diagnosed with COVID-19

Conditions
December 11, 2022

Over the last three years, we have faced the original COVID-19, followed by Omicron, Delta, and monkeypox.

It is apropos that on the third anniversary of COVID-19, we are facing the tripledemic of COVID, influenza, and RSV.

After almost three years of not getting COVID-19, I started believing that my childhood fantasies about me being superman were true and that my immune system was superpowered with bullet-proof antibodies that would keep me …

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When your letter to the editor is rejected or ignored

Physician
November 30, 2022

Dear Dr. El-Dalati,

I am sorry that we will not be able to publish your recent letter to the editor regarding the Chowdhury article of 16-Sep-2021.  The space available for correspondence is very limited, and we must use our judgment to present a representative selection of the material received.  Many worthwhile communications must be declined for lack of space.

The response from The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) seemed simple and …

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For me, COVID has a face

Conditions
November 28, 2022

I’ve moved recently, and in the process of moving, invariably, one discovers old items. This had gotten shelved in the fracas of those years, work changed overnight, changing employers, moving. However, in a discussion with a close friend today, this resurfaced as she’s grappling with patients and family who are not seeing what she’s seeing.

Summer 2020

It’s another Sunday night family dinner. Conversation centers around catching up on the latest family …

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The scientific race to defeat a deadly virus

Conditions
November 26, 2022

An interview with David Quamman, author of Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus.

Rosenberg: After the publication of your 2012 book Spillover, in which the scientists you interviewed talked about expecting the “next big one,” I was surprised more people didn’t say, “Quammen told us so.”

Quammen: Actually, in Jan 2020 [as COVID-19 hit], I immediately got calls asking me how “I knew” this was going to …

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A careless misdiagnosis. A death. A lawsuit.

Conditions
November 24, 2022

They loved long walks through the woods in California. They were sweethearts in high school through college. If they wanted to take a break from their walks, the dogs would gang up on them and insist on continuing.

The trees, the skies, the quiet, the fresh smell of pine and wildflowers.

And on one clear blue sky day, Bill dropped down on bended knee and proposed to Jennifer. The breeze gently blew …

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Why HIV and COVID-19 vaccine screening should go together

Conditions
November 22, 2022

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans got accustomed to regularly answering a series of questions about our risk of exposure to COVID and our possible symptoms. For more than two years, our country remained laser-focused on this protection, demonstrating our health care system’s ability to mount a strong response to a public health crisis. So why haven’t we taken similar precautions in the face of other crises, particularly HIV?

For too long, …

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